Industry Spotlight: Economic Innovation Group
Learn more about EIG at EIG.org.
Founded in 2015 by John Lettieri, Steve Glickman, and Sean Parker, Washington, DC-based Economic Innovation Group (EIG) is a bipartisan public policy organization credited with creating the Opportunity Zones legislation. Its mission is to empower entrepreneurs and investors to forge a more dynamic U.S. economy.
About the Opportunity Zones Podcast
Hosted by OpportunityDb.com founder Jimmy Atkinson, the Opportunity Zones Podcast features guest interviews from fund managers, advisors, policymakers, tax professionals, and other foremost experts in opportunity zones.
Click the play button below to listen to his conversation with John.
Episode Highlights
- A high-level overview of what is happening in the Opportunity Zone space — early investment, use cases, and capital deployment.
- The challenge of moving forward with making Opportunity Zone investments without final rules from IRS, and how lack of final regulatory guidance is holding back the scale and diversity of capital that could be flowing.
- How the 2019 deadline for the full 15-percent basis step-up is meaningful but marginal, as this is meant to be a long-term incentive — and why John believes the majority of the investment will come in 2020 and 2021.
- The importance of philanthropic capital to the success of Opportunity Zones, and the tepid response of the philanthropic community so far. Why the scale achieved so far has been pretty minimal.
- To be answered in the next year: Will there be a proliferation of Opportunity Zone investment that moves the national needle or will the policy remain as small pockets of first movers without real meaningful scale nationwide?
- John’s response to the August 31 New York Times article that was largely critical of Opportunity Zones.
- The damage done to the reputation of Opportunity Zones by a handful of poor zone selections by state governors.
- Why some level of required data collection and reporting on Qualified Opportunity Funds is a “no-brainer.”
Featured on This Episode
- John Lettieri on LinkedIn
- Economic Innovation Group
- The first Opportunity Zones Podcast interview with John
- Rockefeller Foundation
- Kresge Foundation
- New York Times: How a Trump Tax Break to Help Poor Communities Became a Windfall for the Rich
- Wall Street Journal: Erie Hit ‘Rock Bottom.’ The Former Factory Hub Thinks It Has a Way Out.
- Opportunity Zones Podcast episode about Erie, PA
- Heartland Visas
- EIG report on non-compete and no-poach agreements
